A4 • Friday, August 19, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
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Homeless services, navigation center ahead in Seaside
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
In July, the Clatsop County Board of
Commissioners entered into a memorandum
of understanding that establishes the Clatsop
Behavioral Health Resource Network.
Other signatories were the county’s Pub-
lic Health Department, Clatsop Behavioral
Healthcare, Clatsop Community Action,
Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Cen-
ters, Providence Seaside Hospital Foun-
dation, Iron Tribe Network and Morrison
Child & Family Services. All of the services
for which each of the seven agencies have
received funding are for countywide ser-
vices. While some projects may be located in
certain areas, the various services being pro-
vided are for all county residents.
Of the $6.2 million allocated for ser-
vices in Clatsop County through the Behav-
ioral Health Resource Network and funded
through Measure 110, which decriminalized
drugs in the state, the total amount Helping
Hands will receive is $1.8 million.
The money will go toward housing, harm
reduction, drug and alcohol treatment, over-
dose prevention, employment support and
other services that address addiction in the
community.
Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Cen-
ters, Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare, Clatsop
Community Action and Iron Tribe Network
provide fl exible and low-barrier housing for
individuals who use substances that cause
harm or have a substance use disorder.
Founder and CEO Alan Evans of Help-
ing Hands is teaming with Seaside and Clat-
sop Community Action for a shelter at 1530
S. Roosevelt Dr. In 2002, Evans opened an
eight-bed center for the homeless in Sea-
side. Helping Hands operates 11 facilities in
Oregon, providing over 350 beds per night
for the homeless in Clatsop, Lincoln, Mult-
nomah, Tillamook and Yamhill counties.
Q: Tell us about what’s happening in
Seaside.
Evans: Helping Hands has applied for
some grants and we’re aware we’ve got
funding for a navigation and drop-in center
in Seaside. This is going to be a full naviga-
tion center: drop-in center, navigation center,
emergency shelter and a warming center.
Q: Where does it stand now?
Evans: A deal is in place. We’ve been
working on it for months and we are going
to be adding bed space for emergency shel-
ter at that location. There’s access to state
money and federal dollars to enhance assis-
tance for people with substance abuse disor-
ders, mental health disorders and homeless-
ness in general.
It’s going to give us the ability to off er
basic services to our homeless community,
our homeless population in the city of Sea-
side. It’s going to allow us to assist people
in navigating resources and services that are
provided, plus allow us to collect the data we
need to make good, logical decisions based
on what we know.
Right now, we don’t have that in place in
this county.
People will be able to come over or
receive services and meals for the day. It’ll
allow us to work together with Clatsop Com-
munity Action, our homeless liaisons and
Clatsop Behavioral Health to make sure
that people can reach the resources. We’ll
all work together to make sure that they can
navigate that system.
While we collect information through the
Homeless Management Information System,
which is a point-in-time count once a year,
we don’t always know what people’s needs
are and how we’re going to connect them to
services. That’s why a navigation center is so
important.
R.J. Marx
The building at 1530 N. Roosevelt serves as a seasonal warming center.
Helping Hands
Alan Evans, founder and CEO of Helping
Hands Reentry Outreach Centers.
‘WE’RE CONFIDENT IN
THE RELATIONSHIPS THAT
WE’VE BUILT WITH THE
STATE, COUNTY AND CITY.
THE CITY’S INVESTED
IN THIS PROJECT.’
Alan Evans, founder and CEO of
Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers
And that’s why we’ve been working
really hard to make sure we can get to a
point where we can collect the right infor-
mation based on the needs of the people who
are on our streets. And then when we can get
that information then we can navigate this
problem and we have a chance.
Q: You’ll have a 24/7 place that peo-
ple can utilize. Is this a high-barrier or
low-barrier type of shelter?
Evans: We want to make sure that peo-
ple can access services and we can fi nd out
the needs of the population that historically
Helping Hands hasn’t been capable of serv-
ing because what they’re going through in
their life doesn’t meet the criteria of staying
in a higher-barrier facility. This will allow us
to engage with people and work together as
a network to make sure that we can fi nd out
exactly what the needs are and how we can
best serve that population.
We provide meals, a laundry facility and
a structured, low-barrier environment. There
will be rules in place for behavioral issues,
because the last thing we want to do is open
something that’s going to be unsafe to our
public. We want to be able to provide pub-
lic safety to our community, and that’s why
our community involvement is so important
in this.
It’s not going to open the doors and let
people do drugs. But it’s going to be able to
provide the basic necessities to help a per-
son that fi nds themselves in any situation, to
the services they need so they can have the
best chance of sustainability and community
they can.
Q: How will it work?
Evans: What we’re doing in other com-
munities right now is a referral process. Our
organization took over a project for Jordan
Schnitzer in Portland (Bybee Lakes Hope
Center).
We took a 155,000-square-foot building
and we created an outreach program based
off of referring partners. So anybody who
fi nds somebody who’s homeless, or shelter-
less can refer them to the services. This gives
us the ability to do an evaluation to navigate
the system, to fi nd out what holes are in the
system, and for people to be able to get help
and as much information as we can provide.
We’ll begin to start reaching more peo-
ple because, right now, we don’t truly know
what their needs are. We only see the prob-
lem of homelessness transient issues, which
is causing havoc all over our state. Are we
providing the services properly in the com-
munity so they’re reachable by everybody?
That can’t be done without data.
Q: Can you talk about the kind of data
you are looking for?
Evans: Our organization is a person-cen-
tered, trauma-informed, data-driven organi-
zation. We do a full evaluation of every sin-
gle person who comes to us for a resource.
Everybody’s story is diff erent.
You know, we don’t realize in our com-
munity today that the fastest growing pop-
ulation of homeless are senior citizens, and
the second fastest are mothers with children.
So if you do an evaluation of people
to fi nd out their demographics, their basic
needs, and then the obstacles they face to
reenter society, we look at what services
are provided in our community to bridge
that gap. Then we can start coming up with
solutions to how we can make sure the ser-
vices reach the people in need. Data will
be extremely valuable to changing how our
homeless are perceived in a community and
how we can better serve them.
Q: What kind of staff will you be
using?
Evans: Like all of our facilities, we’ll
have a facility director. We’ll have resident
advisers and case managers on-site. We’ll be
partnering with Clatsop Community Action
and partnering with Clatsop Behavioral
Health Care for people with mental health
issues. It’ll be a full wraparound service nav-
igation center.
Q: Is there anything else you would like
to add about this particular endeavor?
Evans: We’re fairly confi dent that we’re
moving in the right direction fi nancially. It’s
always important to make sure that it’s a
fully funded operation to pull off this kind of
work, because you don’t want to ever open
something that you’re at risk of not having
enough money to keep open.
We’re confi dent in the relationships that
we’ve built with the state, county and city.
The city’s invested in this project. They’ve
invested $50,000 this year; $25,000 of it
we’ve already received. We already have
the property. We don’t own it yet. But hope-
fully someday we will and we’ve got a plan
in place.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Boone urges vote for Gray
I am writing in support of Rick Gray,
non-affi liated candidate for House Dis-
trict 32. I met Rick after he fi led to run for
what is my former legislative seat. We met
for coff ee and he told me about his history
and experience in politics. He asked for my
input and advice on the district.
I found him to be thoughtful and intel-
ligent. He has a lot of varied experience
including having served in Virginia as what
we call Secretary of State here in Oregon.
He drafted legislation with his father, a state
representative and senator for 18 years, and
he understands the legislative process. He
has done his research and has met many of
those who either serve or direct in local dis-
trict businesses, agencies and services.
He’s a big thinker with big ideas. He
looks at the issues from a long-term view-
point, somewhat of a rarity these days. The
fact that he is nonpartisan allows him the
freedom to be independent and pursue his
agenda as such.
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
I believe that of all three candidates Rick
is the most experienced and that is import-
ant to me.
I hope you will join me in supporting
Rick Gray for House District 32.
Deborah Boone
Cannon Beach
Consider all citizens
To: Clatsop County Commissioners and
Administrative Staff
Perhaps the commissioners can think
back in time to their high school U.S. his-
tory class when they studied the Declaration
of Independence.
Remember those all-important words
“right to the pursuit of happiness”? It did
not read pursuit of profi t by the operators of
short-term rentals, nor did it read pursuit of
profi t by the county’s collection of $700,00
in transient taxes. So why are commis-
sioners Kujala, Toyooka, Wev, Bangs and
Thompson desirous of disallowing the right
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Samantha
Stinnett
ADVERTISING
SALES MANAGER
Sarah Silver-
Tecza
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
John D. Bruijn
Skyler Archibald
Joshua Heineman
Katherine Lacaze
CONTRIBUTING
PHOTOGRAPHER
Jeff TerHar
PUBLIC MEETINGS
to the pursuit of happiness for a minority
group of residents of Clatsop County by
allowing short-term rental operations in the
coastal residential zone and other residen-
tial zones in the rural land areas of Clatsop
County?
County employees and the commission-
ers that reside in Astoria, Warrenton, Gear-
hart and other municipalities within the
county, which restrict short term rentals
(for good reason, their citizens did not want
them in their neighborhoods) experience no
degradation in the quality of their life by
living next door to mini motels.
Commissioners Mark Kujala, John
Toyooka, Pamela Wev, Courtney Bangs and
Lianne Thompson are, in fact, violating the
civil rights of a minority of citizens residing
in select unincorporated residential neigh-
borhoods within Clatsop County. Egregious
actions to say the least and must and will be
stopped.
Jim Aalberg
Warrenton
TUESDAY, AUG. 30
Gearhart City Council, work session,
6:30 p.m., cityofgearhart.com.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 1
Seaside Parks Advisory Committee, 6 p.m.,
989 Broadway.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 6
Seaside Community Center Commission,
10 a.m., Bob Chisholm Community Center,
1225 Avenue A.
Seaside Library Board, 4:30 p.m., 1131 Broadway.
Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., 989
Broadway.
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 7
Seaside Improvement Commission, 6 p.m.,
989 Broadway.
Gearhart City Council, 7 p.m., www.cityof-
gearhart.com.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 8
Seaside Convention Center Commission,
5 p.m., 415 First Ave., Seaside.
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